Electrical connector assemblies generally include circuits and components on one or more circuit boards that are connected together by an electrical connector. Examples of electrical components in an electrical connector assembly can include daughter boards, motherboards, backplane boards, midplane boards, or the like. The electrical connector provides an interface between electrical components, and provides electrically conductive paths for electrical communications data signals and/or electrical power.
For instance, referring to FIG. 1, one example conventional electrical assembly 20 includes a card-edge connector 22 connected between a first printed circuit board 24 and a second printed circuit board 26. The card-edge connector 22 is illustrated as a straddle-mount style card-edge connector that provides an electrically conductive path between traces at an edge of the first printed circuit board 24 and traces at an edge of the second printed circuit board 26, which is illustrated as being co-planar with the first printed circuit board 24. Such a configuration may be well suited for an electrical assembly in an enclosure, such as a 1U rack-mount server.
The card-edge connector 22 includes a connector housing 28 having a housing body 29 that carries a plurality of electrical contacts 30, which can include electrical signal contacts 32 and electrical power contacts 34. The card-edge connector 22 defines a mounting interface 36 that receives an edge of the first printed circuit board 24, and a mating interface 38 that receives the second printed circuit board 26. The first printed circuit board 24 includes a plurality of electrical contact pads 40 that are connected to the electrical contacts 30 of the card-edge connector 22 when the first printed circuit board 24 is mated to the card-edge connector 22. The electrical contacts 30 and the electrical contact pads 40 are then typically soldered to establish a permanent electrical connection between the electrical contacts 30 of the card-edge connector 22 and the first printed circuit board 24.
The second printed circuit board 26 can be inserted into the mating interface 38 of the edge-card connector 22 so that electrical contact pads 42 of the second printed circuit board 26 are brought into contact with the electrical contacts 30, thereby establishing an electrical connection between the electrical traces of the first printed circuit board 24 and the electrical contacts 30 of the card-edge connector 22. It should thus be appreciated that the card-edge connector 22 can be electrically connected to the first and second printed circuit boards 24 and 26 so as to place the first and second printed circuit boards 26 in electrical communication. The second printed circuit board 26 can be removed from the mating interface 38 of the card-edge connector 22 and re-inserted into the mating interface 38, or another circuit board can be inserted into the mating interface 38 as desired. In this regard, the first printed circuit board 24 can be referred to as a host board, and the second printed circuit board 26 can be referred to as an edge card that can be placed in removable electrical communication with the host board.
The card-edge connector 22 includes a pair of mounting ears 44 that extend out from opposed sides of the housing body 29, and present apertures that are placed in alignment with corresponding apertures on the first printed circuit board 24 when the electrical contacts 30 are placed in contact with the electrical contact pads 40. The aligned apertures are configured to receive hardware 46, such as screws, nuts, and the like, so as to provide a secure physical connection between the card-edge connector 22 and the first printed circuit board 24. Accordingly, when the second printed circuit board 26 is mated to the card-edge connector 22, stresses applied to the card-edge connector 22 from the second printed circuit board 26 that would be absorbed by the connection between the electrical contacts 30 and the electrical contact pads 40 are at least partially absorbed by the secure physical connection between the card-edge connector 22 and the first printed circuit board 24.
Unfortunately, the mounting ears 44 occupy valuable real estate on the first printed circuit board 24.